COLUMBIA - Three state agencies will have to pay Planned Parenthood's legal costs after it won a court case blocking the use of "Choose Life" license plates approved by the Legislature.

The state Budget and Control Board refused to let the departments of Corrections, Social Services and Motor Vehicles use a state contingency fund to pay the $157,810 legal bill of Planned Parenthood, which sued the agencies to block the tags.

Last year, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge's ruling that the anti-abortion license plates the Legislature approved are unconstitutional because they provided one group a forum to express its beliefs without giving the opposing view a similar forum. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Corrections Department Director Jon Ozmint said the three agencies didn't do anything that would leave them responsible for shouldering the legal expenses.

"The Legislature took action and these three agencies took no action. We simply were part of the executive branch and had to be sued to stop production of the plates," Mr. Ozmint said.

"It seems to me the Legislature - somebody else - should bear some burden for the action that was taken that brought about the suit, he said."

The agencies previously had asked the state's Insurance Reserve Fund to cover the costs, but the fund denied the request because Planned Parenthood only sought an injunction and attorney's fees in its lawsuit.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, refused to go along with other Budget and Control Board members to have the state pay the fees out of a contingency fund.

He said the Corrections Department and other agencies have the cash to cover the expense.

Gov. Mark Sanford, the chairman of the Budget and Control Board, tried to persuade Mr. Leatherman to go along with the payment plan.

Mr. Sanford said taking the money from Corrections would hurt Mr. Ozmint's ability to "basically maintain law and order within the correctional system."

The budget board gave final approval to several other projects, including:

- $42 million for research university bonds for work related to Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research

- $30 million in borrowing for overdue maintenance at the state's colleges

- $7 million for a new culinary arts program at a Trident Technical College campus in Charleston